A Day Without Rain
by ProcurerFaith
Summary: Repost. Branches Story 05 - TK finally opens up enough to Matt to experience his love, even after death.


_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Digimon. All Digimon characters are owned by Toei and A. Hongo and such. I am making no money from this fic. It is a just-for-fun project. The only bit I own is my own characters and the way the words are put together. Lyrics mid-fic are from the song 'I've Got You' by Martine McCutcheon._

_**Author's Note; 16**__**th**__** June 2008**__ – SO much for putting up all the fics in reverse chronological order :-P Remember, edits may not quite appear as you remember them, as I'm hashing together the beta and the original uploads. I do not plan to come back and amend this work (if I start picking holes in it, I'll never stop XD). __Oh, and please forgive the Disney-esque ending - I don't know what I was thinking..._

* * *

**A Day Without Rain**

"Sssst!" TK woke with a start for the second time that night. His face was in his pillow and as he fought to raise it, a movement caught his eye. He turned to face it and paused for a moment, a cross between horror and fascination on his face.

"Guh!" He yelled, and covered his eyes, scooting up against the wall, throwing pillows and all manner of tissues and bedcovers everywhere. Taking deep breaths, he tried to ignore the calming hand on his tightly clutched knees.

"It's okay, little brother. Calm down."

"I-I'm hallucinating…M-maybe when mom said… M-maybe…

"Psychiatrist…" TK pulled his hands away from his eyes for a moment and yelled,

"Mom! _Mom_! I think I'm sick!"

"TK, it's me. Don't make such a big fuss. You don't want mom in here freaking out, do you?"

TK took deep, gulping breaths and stared for a moment. His voice was swallowed in the sudden depths of his eyes, depth they hadn't had in weeks.

"See? That's better." Matt smiled warmly and moved his hand down to TK's ankle.

"But…"

"Shh for a minute. Just sit for a bit, huh?"

TK drank with his eyes the figure that sat in front of him. Matt was dressed in corduroy jeans that were a warm shade of cream, and a long-tailed ivory shirt. He had a very serene smile on his face, though not without some mischievousness, and a faint warm radiance surrounded him.

"M….M…" TK tried.

"Matt, yes. You haven't forgotten my name already, have you?" Matt mock-pouted. TK still stared, his mouth slightly open, and shook his head faintly. Matt turned his attention to TK's ankles.

"You're cold." He rubbed TK's ankles vigorously. TK wanted to pull them back, but found himself so relaxed by the motion that he couldn't. Matt lifted up the bedcovers from the floor, where they had fallen when TK had thrown himself half way across the bed to get away from the embodiment of his brother.

"You have to cover yourself properly, little brother. It's cold out there tonight."

TK just blinked.

"I…I-I don't normally have good dreams…" He whispered. Matt's expression saddened.

"I know."

"I'm not normally awake when I dream, either." TK shivered. Matt stood and carried the bedclothes over to his brother. He threw them out and spread them across his shivering form. TK looked up as Matt sat closer to him on the bed, only inches away from him. Without warning, he reached out to brush Matt's arm with his fingertips. Like they were burned, he snapped them back and rubbed them.

"Tingles." He stated.

"Weird, huh?" Matt smiled. TK nodded.

"Do it again. It gets easier." Matt reached out his hand. TK looked at it suspiciously and then stroked his own hand across it. He couldn't resist a smile.

"S'nice."

"See? It's not so bad."

TK could sense his brother. Could _really _sense him. It was as if he'd never gone, as though the hole inside of him was filled with the feeling that had always been there before Matt's death.

TK mouthed something without sound. Matt frowned and leaned closer.

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry."

And suddenly his words were taken up in a torrent of tears. Suddenly, he was interwoven with this radiance, languishing in his brother's arms. Suddenly the rest of the world didn't exist.

"It's okay, TK. It was never your fault. Never."

"B-but I t-told you bad stuff, s-said h-horrible things…"

"I know. So did I. But it's all forgotten about now."

"B-but it isn't! I can't forget it!"

"Well, _I_ can."

TK continued to sob into his brother's ivory shirt. He'd wanted this moment for so long. He'd prayed and begged for a moment like this- for a chance to apologise.

"I'm so sorry… It was all my fault…"

"It wasn't. Remember when Tai called you out? Remember when he said 'Were you driving the car'? Do you remember?"

"H-how'd you know about that?" TK whispered hoarsely.

"Because I was in the room crying with you. Begging you to stop, wishing you would push your grief away and reject it." TK blinked at this revelation.

"Y-you were?" He asked, a hint of disbelief on his tongue. Matt pulled TK's head off his chest and nodded. TK's sight wavered- the warmth from Matt's body was starting to overpower him and render him helpless.

"You never spent a moment alone, TK. I was always there with you, just like I promised I'd be.

"You remember that promise, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well. I don't make promises very often, and when I do they're very sincere."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

"Th-there's something else I wanted to say." TK climbed up Matt's chest with his palms until he was looking right into his face. Then he threw his arms tightly around his neck and whispered,

"I love you. I love you, oniichan.

"I-I didn't say it and I was an idiot and I had so many chances and I passed up all of them and-"

"I love you too." Matt put his hand over TK's mouth so that he could get a word in edgewise. He smiled widely, and suddenly chuckled. Behind Matt's hand, TK's face was confused. Matt finally let go.

"What are you laughing at?" TK sighed. "I _knew_ you'd laugh at me."

"I'm not laughing at _you_. I'm laughing at _us_."

"Why?"

"Because we both know we love each other! We don't need words to prove that!"

"_I _needed them."

"Well, if _you_ needed them, then they were words worth saying… But we didn't need them. Not really." TK looked at his older brother with more love than could be understood by any outside watcher.

"I still love you."

"Well, good."

TK's face fell.

"Did it hurt? Were you hurting? I can't…I can't bear to-"

"No. It didn't hurt a bit. Or at least, not that I remember."

TK rested his head on his brother's chest for a little while, tightly tucked inside the warm radiance that was part of him. Matt dragged up the bedcovers to cover TK's back.

"I don't need those." TK murmured.

"Why? Because of the strength of my love?" Matt smirked a little.

"No, because you're a walking radiator." TK grinned mischievously. Matt tutted and pulled the bedclothes over TK's head, and he giggled. Peering out from beneath the covers, he gazed into his brother's face. He sighed involuntarily.

"I miss you." He whispered. Matt put his head to one side.

"I know."

"Can't you do anything about it?" TK implored. Matt chuckled.

"Nope. 'Fraid not, squirt."

"I guess it's not that easy, huh?"

"Uh-uh." Matt shook his head.

TK sighed and rested his head on Matt's chest again.

"Are you really here?" He asked, after a pause.

"Maaaaybe." Matt said, impishly grinning.

"No, seriously… Will I wake up and this will just be another dream?"

"Only if that's what you want it to be."

"I don't."

"Then it won't be."

There was another long pause.

"Did you hear me every time I said I was sorry?"

"Yup. Unless I missed any."

"Did you always hear me crying?"

"Haven't I _always _heard you crying? When you were small, your crying used to always wake me up, no matter how quiet you thought you were being.

"It broke my heart to hear you crying and to not be able to reach out and change it. To not be able to reach out and say, 'Hey, TK, all's fine and well and by the way it was _my_ fault I got squished and not yours'."

"_Ow_." TK took a sharp intake of breath. "Too graphic."

"Sorry." Matt smiled apologetically.

"S'okay." TK sniffed. His eyes filled.

"And you don't need to do _that_ anymore, either." Matt instructed softly, flicking away TK's tears with a deft index finger.

"I wish you could come back properly." TK sniffled.

"I can't, squirt."

"I know. I just _wish_ you could, that's all."

For a long time TK lay in his brother's arms, eventually drifting off into comfortable, warm sleep.

Some time later, he was woken by his brother putting him back to bed. He looked up blearily at Matt's comforting smile.

"You have to go now, don't you?"

"Yup. Other places to go, other people to see." TK's hand snapped out and caught Matt's.

"Please don't." TK begged quietly. Their fingers interlocked.

"I have to, TK." TK closed his eyes tightly and when he opened them again, they shimmered in the gentle light Matt exuded.

"You're right. It's selfish of me to want to keep you here." His voice was quiet.

"It's not that, TK. I would if I could, but I can't. You _do _understand, don't you?"

"I think so." TK took in a deep, juddering breath and sighed it back out.

"You okay?" Matt asked, concerned. TK nodded.

"I'm better _now_."

In all truth, he _did_ feel a lot better. He felt as though the whole weight of the universe had been lifted from his shoulders. His brother hadn't been in pain when he died. He hadn't blamed him. He'd been sorry for the argument, too. Apart from the fact that Matt couldn't stay, the world was good again.

Still relentlessly holding TK's hand, Matt sat down on the bed once more.

"Close your eyes, TK. Close your eyes and go to sleep, and know that in the morning when you wake- and every morning after it- I'll be with you. Not like I am now, but I'll never leave. Look for me in the world around you, and keep your mind open to me." He reached out and closed TK's eyes, dislodging tears. He wiped them away with the back of his fingers.

"Never blame yourself for what happened. I want you to know I release you from any self-blame you feel, any promises made to me because of what happened that day.

"It was just one of those things, squirt.

"And always keep me in your heart, because if I'm there I'll live forever."

"You'll always be there." TK smiled faintly.

There was a pause.

"Stay with me 'til I'm asleep, 'niichan." TK mumbled.

"I will."

TK could feel Matt's gentle fingers combing through his hair and smiled.

* * *

"TK! Your alarm went off three times already! Are you getting up today?" TK was woken by the call and blearily turned around to look at the clock by his bed. He had a brief panic attack as he realised that he was going to be late for school. He leapt out of the bed as his mom called worriedly,

"Are you okay, honey?"

"Never better!" TK called back as he struggled with his slippers.

"Why did you set your alarm? There's no school today." Mom knocked on the door and opened it slightly. TK blinked.

"There's not?"

"No. It's Sunday. Are you meeting up with the others?"

"I don't know." TK looked at the clock. "I…I guess I am. I think I have a message to spread." A slight grin stretched across TK's face. Mom frowned for a moment and then she shrugged.

"Okay. But whatever message it is, make sure you're in for dinner."

"Sure, Mom."

TK sat on the bed where he remembered Matt sitting last night. He sighed in a cross between contentment and pain and remembered what Matt had told him. He turned to his bedside table. The old, familiar note was there- the one Matt had left in TK's lunchbox the day he'd died. But there was now another one. TK picked it up hesitantly.

'Guess what? It wasn't a dream.' The note said. It was in the exact same handwriting as the first note. TK's face broke into a fully-fledged grin.

"I really love you, oniichan."

That said, he made his bed and rushed to the front room, suddenly feeling light-headed. The bright sunlight bled between the blinds in the kitchen, and on his way into the front room he dove into the kitchen and swept them open.

"That's better." He smiled, gazing out across the city.

Mom watched worriedly from the doorway.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine now, mom. I'm okay."

Natsuko turned away from her remaining son and returned to the front room. She was concerned because she knew TK had been missing Matt like a limb and this sudden turn around- though welcomed- could be a sign of something more sinister than just happiness.

TK knew it wasn't.

"It's okay, Mom. Everything's okay now." TK walked into the front room and propped himself up against the doorway. Natsuko looked at the warm serenity on her son's face- and despite her previous reservations, found herself trusting her son implicitly in his judgement.

Serenity was an expression TK hadn't worn for a long time. Whenever he had been able to look up from the floor, all his worried mother had seen was grief and an inner loneliness- something Natsuko had desperately tried to convince her son to talk to her about.

Now there were no traces of that at all.

Natsuko suddenly smiled at her son. He gave her a warm grin and wandered out of the room. She watched as he left, her mug of coffee cooling in her hands.

The phone rang.

Masaharu, in quite a state, looked around his apartment. He had woken that morning, rather disturbed to find the place spotless.

When he had eventually struggled to bed the night before, still running on some vague automatic system without his son, the place had really been quite uninhabitable.

Now it was clean and tidy. _Very _clean and tidy. In fact, more spick and span than it had been in _weeks_.

The phone shook in his hand. Under different circumstances, Masaharu Ishida shaking in pyjama bottoms holding a phone with a look of shock on his face would have been funny- his eldest certainly would have thought so. But this was slightly different.

It was the note he held in his hand that had shaken him the most.

The phone picked up at the other end.

"Hello? Takaishi residence?"

"I want to speak to TK."

"Wrong side of the bed this morning, Masaharu?" His ex-wife intoned.

"Just put TK on." Masaharu replied abruptly.

As Natsuko approached TK's room, she heard music trailing lightly down the corridor.

'Flowers, they don't always bloom…And even when they do…They're not meant to last forever… Love can turn at any time…The good and bad, the wrong and right…Find a way to come together…'

Natsuko paused as the words instantly reminded her of her lost child. She took a deep breath and kept walking.

"TK?" Natsuko called out for her son gently through the door as she reached it. She heard his shy singing voice drift coyly through the wood.

"'Cos I've got you, to pull me through another day…And you've got me-"

"TK?" Natsuko knocked on the door. This didn't seem to have any effect.

"Hm-mmm-hm-mmm-h-mmm-mm-mmm…'Cos I've got you, who cares what anyone may say…I know I'm gonna find my way, 'cos I-"

"TK!" Natsuko called loudly, opening the door. TK looked up immediately, the words of the song trailing away on his lips- still hovering on one leg whilst putting a sock on.

"Foun- Sorry, Mom, I didn't hear you." He looked sheepish.

"Your father is on the phone." Natsuko informed and then left the room. TK turned down the stereo and wandered out to the extension in the main passageway.

"Hey, Dad." TK said cheerily.

"TK, was this you?" His father sounded a little angry. TK was instantly confused.

"…Was what me?"

"Who else could it have been, TK? Tell me who else it could have been?" Masaharu's voice had a tinge of desperation to it now.

"It's not fair, it's not fair to play tricks on me like this…"

"Dad, what's happened?"

"You know what's happened, Takeru."

"No, no I don't. Dad, please tell me."

"The note… Your- your handwriting…It's not like his, right?"

"Like who's?"

"Like Matt's."

"No, nothing. Why?" TK was worried. His father sounded as though he was really losing it.

"Because I have a note here in his writing that's been posted to the cupboard doors and he couldn't have written it, but I don't know who wrote it!"

TK smiled.

"What does it say?"

Masaharu breathed deeply.

"It's…It's a… A shopping list."

TK couldn't resist a grin.

"A shopping list?"

"_Yes_! Stuff I need in the kitchen- food, supplies… That kind of thing. I mean, it's _possible _I could have overlooked it before, but… But the apartment… It's _clean_, TK, I mean _really _clean. I…I don't understand…"

TK could hear his dad's voice shaking. He'd never lost it in front of him before, he'd been keeping everything in about Matt's death- or at least, only letting it out in his own apartment.

"Dad… Daddy… You'll never believe me if I tell you. I don't know if it's good to tell you right now."

"Tell me what?"

"It's Matt."

There was a pause as Masaharu tried to digest what his son was telling him.

"No, TK. Matt's dead."

"Dead's not for always, Dad."

The quietness was longer this time.

"What do you mean?"

"Matt came to me last night, when I was in bed. He told me that he's good. He's okay. And he doesn't blame me- or anyone else for what happened. He…he doesn't." TK stopped and thought about what he was trying to say. Would he believe it himself if it were somebody else telling him?

"I know it sounds ridiculous the way I'm trying to explain it. You probably think I'm nuts-"

"I think I'd better speak to your mother."

"No, Dada, listen. Listen to me, and hear _Matt's_ words in _my_ voice. I know it's hard to understand, but he's okay. He couldn't wake you- he knows how you hate to be woken from your sleep- but he wanted to see you, to help you- like he did me. So that's what he did."

Silence.

"For that, I'd have let anyone wake me." Masaharu's words were choked.

"Daddy, let me come around and I'll point out all the things that mark it with Matt's signature. Let me help you. Let somebody in."

The hope that had healed TK's heart marked his father for healing.

"Yes."

"I'll be around later, Dad, okay? I have somebody else to see first, and then I'll be there. If you look whilst you're waiting, well… You can see the things for yourself. What about the way he would clean with that stuff he liked the smell of, but everybody else hated? What about when he cleaned the kitchen, and he always forgot behind the taps?"

There was silence.

"I love you, dad."

The following words were quiet, but enough.

"I love you too."

"I know. Just like Matt did." TK smiled a little.

"Okay. I'll see you later."

"Bye, Dad. Oh, and never underestimate the power of that word."

"What word?"

"_Dad_."

"It's a word that can move mountains, just as the word 'son' does."

It was TK's turn to think.

"See you soon, TK."

"You will."

* * *

As Masaharu put the phone down, he paused for a moment, just standing still- it was the first time he'd stopped shaking that morning. Holding the note like it would spontaneously combust if he put it down, he walked over to the kitchen.

Silently, he looked behind the kitchen taps.

He clutched the note closer, if that were possible.

He stayed that way for a long time.

* * *

"Mom! I'm going to Tai's house! I'll be back soon, and definitely in time for dinner!"

"Okay, TK! Take care!"

"I will!" TK yelled from the doorway.

On his way to the elevator, he passed Cody, whose expression immediately dropped. Not because he didn't want to see his friend, but because his friend had been so sombre. So sombre in fact that, from somebody like TK, it was almost walking death- and painfully heartbreaking.

"Hey, Cody!" TK called, waving. Cody took a double take and responded in kind.

"Hey TK. How are you?" The question was wary.

"Oh, I'm okay." TK grinned. "Gotta go, I have to catch Tai before soccer practice. I'll call in on you later, okay?"

Cody scowled a little, but replied,

"Okay."

He watched as TK disappeared towards the elevator, and then into it. Then shook his head and carried on walking to Yolei's apartment.

As TK walked past the park, he heard music. And in the music he heard Matt. It didn't matter that it wasn't Matt's music- what mattered was that it was music at all, and that music was so much a part of Matt that all music was his.

"So you're there…" TK said to himself, as though counting. He gazed up at the blossom in the trees.

"And you're there too- you used to always lift me up so I could reach them."

He stood on tiptoes to reach the blossom from a branch overhanging the fence around the park.

"But now I can reach them myself."

His hand connected with the blossom- and as it did, TK's eyes widened, his mind chomping the bit on the lesson he had just learned. He smiled.

"You're still teaching me."

He plucked the blossom from the branch, all the while apologising to the tree.

"_How would you like it if somebody came along and pulled your hair out?" Matt chided. Little TK looked sullenly at the blossoms in his hand._

"_But I liked them."_

"_I'm not saying you can't like them. I'm just saying you should leave them there for everybody else to like, too."_

TK took one more look at the tree, bowed to it and ran all the way to the soccer field.

Tai was sullenly toying with the football when he heard somebody yelling his name. He turned around to see TK, yelling and waving emphatically. He squinted.

"That can't be TK." He squinted some more, and Davis joined him.

"It _is _TS. Has he finally flipped or something?"

"He's smiling." Tai commented, surprising himself with how surprised _he _sounded.

"Haven't seen _that _in a while!" Commented Davis, which earned him a clip around the ear from Tai.

"Ow!" Davis looked wounded as he comforted his ear lobe.

"I didn't mean it like that…" He sulked.

"Hey, TK! Whatcha doing?" Tai yelled at his young friend as he ran closer. He was cupping something in his hands. TK ran closer, out of breath from his spate of running.

"Tai! I have to show you something!" TK exclaimed. Tai was a little concerned at this sudden turnaround in TK's general attitude, but humoured him anyway.

"Sure!… What?"

With that, TK opened his palms, exposing the now slightly crumpled blossoms.

"Sure… They're pretty, but…"

"Can't you see? Look around you, Tai…" TK grinned, still holding out the blossoms.

"He's _everywhere._"

Tai took a brief look around, but soon returned his worried eyes to TK.

"Okay, I lost the plot somewhere."

TK sighed, but in affectionate acknowledgement of lessons yet to be learned.

"Tai, how much do you want to play soccer today?"

"Is this like a Bill Gates question? 'Where do you want to go today?'" Tai smirked. TK grinned.

"Kinda."

"It depends what you've got planned."

"It's really important."

"Okay, I'm sold. Where are we going?"

"Into the Digiworld."

"Great! I'll meet you in the computer room!" Davis grinned widely. TK looked unsure.

"Well, Davis? It's just that… Well…"

"You don't want me along, right?" Davis sighed.

"Don't take it personally, Davis. You're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It happens." TK smiled, although both Tai and Davis picked up the momentary flicker of pain reflected in his eyes. Instantly, Davis dropped the argument sitting on his tongue.

"Are we going then?" Tai asked.

TK felt badly about making Davis feel unwelcome. He smiled at him and suggested

"Maybe we'll stick around in there and you could come along later?" Davis gave a genuine smile.

"Sure."

As TK raced away, having to stop every few moments to wait for Tai to catch up, Davis watched.

"Davish!" yelled a little voice from inside his sports bag.

Davis looked down as Demi-Veemon erupted from his towel and change of clothes.

"Pffooof!! Your socks smell even when they're clean!"

"They do _not_!"

Demi-Veemon giggled.

"So, are you gonna watch me play?" Davis asked, puffing out his chest.

"Go Davish, go Davish!" chanted Demi-Veemon, pumping his little arms. Davis laughed. Demi-Veemon giggled and rested back on his haunches, against Davis' towel.

* * *

Tai opened his eyes and looked down. Agumon was by his side, hugging his legs.

"You know, in my world you can get into trouble for doing that." Tai grinned.

"Well, after what happened to Matt…" Agumon began, and then noted that TK was there, too.

"Oh, sorry, TK."

"It's all right, Agumon." TK smiled- a little watered down, but still a smile, and a genuine one.

"Is Gabumon around?" TK asked suddenly, a little concerned for his brother's Digimon.

"We haven't seen him since…Well, since…" Agumon put both of his hands over his mouth. TK smiled at him.

"You _can _say it. Since Matt died."

"_TK? What's the matter? And what have you done to yourself!" Matt crouched down beside his little brother, who was crying his eyes out. TK was smothered in mud. Matt looked worriedly into TK's face as he sobbed._

"_I-I tried to save it, but it's gone and dead now!"_

"_What is, TK?"_

_TK extended his arms and opened his hands to reveal a small, drowned earthworm._

"_I-it didn't want me to pick it up!"_

"_Well… Maybe it knew its time was up?" Matt said softly, scooping it out of TK's hands and putting it on the grass. TK continued to cry, but Matt took his hands tightly._

"_Nothing lives forever, TK."_

_TK sniffled and looked at his brother in a half-pout._

"_Not even you, Matt?"_

"_No. Not even me."_

_Tiny little TK paused and looked down at his hands, so tightly held in his protective brothers'. Suddenly, he threw himself around Matt's neck._

_"I love you, oniichan."_

TK's entire body stiffened as realisation hit him like a sledgehammer.

"Tai?…"

Tai looked worried as he noticed TK's still form.

"What?"

"I did say it."

"I love you too, little brother."

"And so did he..."

TK looked back at the blossom in his hands, which was beginning to wilt and go brown at the edges. He hadn't let it go.

"Nothing lives forever, TK." He whispered. "Not even me."

"TK?" Tai put his hand on TK's shoulder. TK turned to him, and took his hands, placing the blossom into them.

"I want to show you something."

"What is it?"

"Look at the blossom."

"TK, I've already seen it. I don't-"

"When I was small, Matt used to lift me up to reach the blossom on the trees because I thought it was beautiful and wanted to touch it. But I couldn't reach. And so then sometimes on his way home from school, he would pick up fallen blossoms and bring them home to me.

"But he never picked the blossom, he always let it live on the tree until it was time for it to fall."

Tai was silent.

"Don't you see? In the blossom, in everything around us, in everything we see here-" TK swept his arms to indicate the Digital World "He still lives. Look around you; what do you see?"

"I see… The meadow. A couple trees. Lots of grass and stuff…"

"The grass… When we were here before, the first time, Matt would cover me in grass when I was cold."

"Then there's the flowers."

"Look deeper."

A breeze swept across the open land, sweeping all the grass and leaves into one direction, the soft sound of rustling breaking over the watchers. TK closed his eyes and let the warm wind brush over his features.

"Laughter carries on the wind, Tai. Can you hear it?"

"No, I-" Tai caught himself. He listened intently, and Agumon moved away so that he could cock his own ears. Tai's expression lifted into one of shock.

The bright sunlight bore down on them, it's kind warmth keeping the chill of surprise off of the two survivors.

"He's here." TK smiled, still not opening his eyes, but reaching his arms out to the warmth of the sun.

"You'll never believe a word, but he came to see me last night, Tai, he came to tell me everything was fine. He lives on in everything we see, and he can never die- just like true love can't. Especially here, where data is only reconfigured; never destroyed."

"I believe it…" Tai said softly. He gazed into the sky, so full of little fluffy clouds.

TK ran forwards. The hill they were on broke for freedom below where TK now stood, reaching his arms out from the edge. His smile was wide and full of wonder- like it always had been four years previously. His eyes were yet still closed.

"They say that we're too young…To feel we've just begun…To realise what we've been given…Take our chances as they come…" TK sang, his sweet voice growing in confidence as he continued.

"You sound like him." Tai commented softly.

"Don't look back at what's been done…Pass the road that we have driven…"

Tai stood stock still as he instantly recognised the voice carrying on the wind. His face slack, he gazed out across the field. TK was still singing, his voice still growing in strength and confidence- but tears were rolling down his face.

"If I have you…I've got everything…If I have you…I've got the moon, the stars, the sun…What more could I want?…

"What more could I want?"

"You've still got me, little brother. I'm going nowhere."

"Matt…" The name was almost silent on Tai's lips.

"Don't you ever stop smiling, TK… Or you, Tai. As the saying goes- 'keep the faith.' "

TK suddenly opened his eyes wide, yelling and waving at the wind. They heard Matt laugh.

"Now you're gettin' it!"

"I'll never forget all the lessons you taught me, oniichan…"

"Good! Because they weren't very good lessons if you can forget 'em!"

"You okay, man? I mean…" Tai tried to speak, but found appropriate words failing him.

"It's all good, Tai. Everything. It's all good." Matt said softly, and Tai was instantly comforted by the words and how they were said.

"Thank you. For remembering." Matt's voice faded, and the grass around their feet ceased to move with the wind for a moment. Then the wind was back, spreading it's warm breath across the Digiworld.

"I've missed him." A voice behind TK, Tai and Agumon made them turn. Gabumon stood behind them.

"It's nice to know he's still around."

_-fini-_

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_Thank you for reading to the end :) I hope my fic gave you some enjoyment :)_


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